These past two weeks have been just what I needed. No travelling, no huge projects. Just my usual happenings. April is a nightmare month for me time wise, so I am trying to soak in every quiet moment. I did have a parent-teacher conference that went very well, and Gage, Jason, and I toured a school together and loved it for Gage. Now I need to schedule testing to see if we can get him in. I did spend an excessive number of hours volunteering at the library, but that’s just fun. I told the library manager this week that sorting and selling donations was my form of therapy.

Posts

February Favorites

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Books Finished

I’ve read 30 books so far this year.

Judgement Prey by John Sandford, #33 in the Lucas Davenport series, thriller/mystery, 400 pages, 2023

I started this series with book one and haven’t looked back. I realized I was a few behind so I’m making quick work of the last few. If you like police procedurals you should definitely give this series a look. He started as a Minneapolis police detective, but is currently a US Marshal still based in Minneapolis. He has a recurring partner, Lucas Flowers, and an adopted daughter, Letty, who each have their own spin offs.

Too far From Home by Naomi Shmuel, tweens, 4.5 stars, 96 pages, 2020

Set in Israel, it’s a great fiction book that touches on so many issues that kids are going through, moving from home, trying to make friends, racial bias, embarrassment, defiance…. I’d recommend reading it with your preteen.

Meskerem was born and grew up with her parents, sisters, and grandmother in Golan Heights, but the family had to move to Herzelia for her mother’s new job. Mezkerem was sad to leave her friends and grandmother behind.

On the first day of school kids started ridiculing her by calling her, ‘an Ethiopian’. Mezkerem’s mom had been born in Ethiopia and her dad was American. Meskerem became embarrassed by her heritage.

This story is only 89 pages but packs a lot of discussion into those pages.

Walking in Ava’s Shoes by Kathi Howard-Primes, picture book, 22 pages, 2022

Ava has ADHD. The first line of the book…”Just because I act and learn differently-doesn’t mean something is wrong with me.” It goes through her days showing some of her struggles, like trouble listening and the constant need to move, and ways to help, like eating well and getting enough sleep.

The author based this on her now grown daughter and it’s one I’d recommend for elementary classroom read alouds. And school libraries too! The illustrations are cute and it even has an ADHD checklist in the back.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley, 5 stars, historical romance, 364 pages, 1994

This was a re-read for me.

Here were my first thoughts on Goodreads when I finished this one, “My love affair with Susanna Kearsley continues. This was one of her first books and it may be my favorite so far. I didn’t want it to end. I was worried that the ending would be all wrong. But it wasn’t. It was perfect.”  There is something so magical and romantic about her stories.  There is history, romance, and a perfect sense of place in all of her books.  This one also felt a little like a ghost story.

Julia was sure she’d found her house and she packed up and moved from London to a small English village without a second thought.  She was a children’s book illustrator and was able to make a few friends right away just as she was being transported back in time at unpredictable times.

It’s tricky when you are going back and forth between time periods and characters.  Inevitably, you are drawn more to one story than the other.  This one did a great job of tying the two together so I was invested in both.  Was this book, the first time she tried the time travel travel romance, perfect? No.  Was it perfect enough to have me rereading the last few chapters again and again because I wasn’t quite ready for it to end?  A resounding YES!

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney, 4+ stars, current events, 372 pages, 2023

I posted my thoughts this week here.

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with Elizabeth & John Sherrill, 5 stars, memoir, 272 pages, 1971

This was a re-read. I posted my thoughts this week here.

Coco Chanel: The Illustrated World of a Fashion Icon by Megan Hess, 4 stars, graphic novel/biography, 218 pages, 2015

The illustrations by Megan Hess in this 200+ pages book are whimsical and fun.

Coco spent much of her childhood in an orphanage in France after her mother died and her father wanted nothing to do with her. She created for herself the life she wanted. “My life didn’t please me so I created my life.” She never married but the love of her life helped her get her start in 1908. She opened her own millinery boutique in Paris.

Everything she touched turned to gold until 1939 when she shut down her 3000 staff salon. She stayed in Paris at the Hotel Ritz with her lover, a German officer, to ride out the war. She fled the country for a number of years after the war before making her comeback.

It’s a beautiful graphic novel for fashion lovers. It wasn’t until after I read this that a friend showed me that Coco had actually been a spy for the Nazis.

Frindle by Andrew Clements, 4.5 stars, kids fiction, 128 pages, 1996

5th grader Nick Allen gets into a war of words with his language arts teacher and it goes further that he could have ever have imagined. Gage and I read it together and had a few laughs and talks about unintended consequences.

How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams. 4.25 stars, romance, 343 pages, 2020

Naya, a professor who is 3 years out of an abusive relationship, is convinced by her best friends to open herself to new experiences. She meets Jake at a bar and the two make a connection. I loved this story with two very likeable people. It was a very realistic story with a lot of spice! The domestic abuse is a significant part of the story and some may find it triggering.

On the Screen

Jason and I like all of the Batman movies and we finally saw 2022’s The Batman with Robert Pattinson. We liked quite a bit. Are you a Batman fan? Christian Bale is still my favorite.

Jason and I finished Oppenheimer just in time for the Oscars tonight. I don’t know if I preferred it to Killers of the Flower Moon, but I get the hype.

Plans for the Weekend

Watching the Oscars!